Premier League Football Clubs Research Articles

Fan responses to ownership change in the English Premier League: Motivated ignorance, social creativity and social competition at Newcastle United F.C.

Over recent years there has been a significant increase in foreign ownership within the English Premier League, with ‘sportswashing’ being identified as a key motive for some new club owners. Whilst the effects of changes of ownership have received considerable focus, especially in terms of their impacts upon the club, less attention has been paid to the status of the owners themselves, how any perceived sportswashing strategy impacts upon fans, and how that impact is managed, especially in terms of the strategies that are used by fans to maintain a sense of identification. This paper focuses on the takeover of one Premier League football club, Newcastle United, and explores fan responses to its high-profile and controversial takeover by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF). The paper explores the identity-maintenance strategies used by fans to maintain a positive association with the club using existing frameworks related to social creativity and social competition, as well as through the application of a novel strategy that has yet to be explored within the sport fan literature, that of motivated ignorance. The results demonstrate that whilst social creativity and social competition strategies are evident, motivated ignorance also provides an additional mechanism through which social identities may be protected from identity threat.

Identifying behavioural barriers and facilitators to engaging men in a community-based lifestyle intervention to improve physical and mental health and well-being

BackgroundThere are few community-based lifestyle interventions designed to target physical and mental health of men. We conducted a qualitative focus group study with men to explore their perceived barriers and facilitators to uptake and engagement with interventions designed to improve their physical and mental health and wellbeing.MethodsA volunteer sampling approach (advertisements posted on a premier league football club’s social media) was used to recruit men aged 28 to 65 years who were interested in improving their physical and/or mental health and wellbeing. Focus group discussions were conducted at a local premier league football club to 1) explore men’s perceived barriers and facilitators to uptake of community-based interventions; 2) identify health issues considered important to address; 3) obtain participant views on how to best engage men in community-based interventions; and 4) use the findings to inform the development of a multibehavioural complex community-based intervention (called ‘The 12th Man’).ResultsSix focus group discussions were conducted (duration 27 to 57 min) involving 25 participants (median age 41 years, IQR = 21 years). Thematic analyses generated seven themes: ‘Lifestyle behaviours for both mental health and physical health’; ‘work pressures are barriers to engaging with lifestyle behaviour change’; previous injuries are barriers to engagement in physical activity and exercise’; personal and peer group relationships impact on lifestyle behaviour change’; relationships between body image and self-confidence on mastery of skills for physical activity and exercise’; building motivation and personalised goal setting’; and ‘credible individuals increase uptake and continued engagement with lifestyle behaviour change’.ConclusionsFindings suggest that a multibehavioural community-based lifestyle intervention designed for men should promote parity of esteem between physical and mental health. It should also acknowledge individual needs and preferences, emotions in the context of goal setting and planning, and be delivered by a knowledgeable and credible professional. The findings will inform the development of a multibehavioural complex community-based intervention (‘The 12th Man’).

An analytical study of the organizational functions in the football industry according to the human resource management dimension from the player’s point of view

The importance of the research is summarized in the importance of organizational functions only after Human resource management in the development of the team and the department as a whole, especially that of human resources It works to develop the team by exploiting all human capabilities to implement the plans and goals of the league clubs excellent The Iraqi football season 20 21-202 2 and the research problem appears in the weakness and lack of organizational functions and the determination of their specialization by the clubs and the lack of investment in the human resources available in those sports clubs mentioned One of the objectives of the research is to build and standardize a scale The organizational functions of Premier League football clubs from a point of view Players, as well as setting standard levels to measure the organizational functions of Premier League soccer clubs from the player’s point of view, as well as identifying the organizational functions According to human resources management for Premier League football clubs. The researchers used the descriptive approach using the survey method to suit the nature of the research, and the research community consists of Premier League football club players for the football season (2021-2022), and the sample was chosen by the intentional method and consisted of Premier League club players whose number is (663) players, as it reached The total number of those who underwent the experiment was (476) players, with a rate of (71.79%), and (182) players and (25) were expelled. A player for the reconnaissance experiment. As a result of this, the sample was divided into two parts, the first for the procedures for designing and building the scale, and the second for the purpose of applying the scale, as follows: First: The sample for building the scale: It included a number of players of the Iraqi Premier League football clubs (open), whose number was (244) players, as their percentage reached (51.26%) of the research community. Second: The scale application sample: It included (212) players, with a percentage of (44.53%) players from the research community.the researchers concluded The organizational functions and after the management of human resources have a major role In the development of sports clubs in the continuation of the competition and the achievement of the required goals, and the most important recommendations of the researcher is that it is the necessity of the presence of organizational functions according to the dimension of human resources management for sports clubs.

The percentage of the contribution of convergent thinking to the level of tactical behavior performance of goalkeepers of Premier League football clubs

The percentage of the contribution of convergent thinking to the level of tactical behavior performance of goalkeepers of Premier League football clubs

The psychological rebellion among the reserve players of the Iraqi premier league football clubs and its relationship to the stability of perceived behavior

The psychological rebellion among the reserve players of the Iraqi premier league football clubs and its relationship to the stability of perceived behavior

The training psychological integration of the coaches of the Iraqi premier league football clubs and its relationship to the results of their teams

The training psychological integration of the coaches of the Iraqi premier league football clubs and its relationship to the results of their teams

Designing new digital tools to augment human creative thinking at work: An application in elite sports coaching

AbstractCreative thinking is desirable in many professions. This article reports new research that followed a design science approach to develop and investigate a co‐creative tool called Sport Sparks in one profession – the coaching of professional football players. In response to a coach entering a text description of a coaching challenge (e.g., struggling to maintain the fitness of an athlete) into the tool, the tool automatically generated potentially novel ideas (e.g., reducing game time and changing their nutrition) that the coach could select and/or adapt and evolve into a simple action plan (e.g., which links nutrition to increased game time). This Sport Sparks tool was designed to be an example of human‐centred artificial intelligence that aspires to empower humans, to deliver high levels of human control as well as automation, and empower people rather than emulate their expertise. It was engineered with rule‐based reasoning to automate the generation of potential new ideas that coaches could select and refine during interactions which provide high user control over this automation. The potential of such a co‐creative tool, and value of the guidelines, were demonstrated during the tool's evaluation by coaching practitioners at a Premier League football club. The practitioners used the tool to generate new ideas to coaching challenges, and reported evidence of different forms of creative thinking, although some also reported the need for more support for creative collaborations and solution planning. The paper ends by discussing future directions for both the Sport Sparks tool and other co‐creative AI tools.

A Critical Evaluation of the Use of Social Media by Maltese Premier League Football Clubs

Social media (SM) has become an integral part of everyday life. Its ease of useand accessibility have given sports organisations the opportunity to use this space as aneffective communication and marketing tool. This study, through a qualitative contentanalysis of all Facebook posts uploaded by all Maltese Premier League (MPL) footballclubs in February and April 2020, investigated the use of SM by MPL football clubs. Thesefindings were then supported by semi-structured interviews with seven club representativesto provide a better understanding of the clubs perceptions in relation to the use of SM. Theinterviews were analysed using thematic analysis, which allowed new themes and patternsto emerge. Findings show that MPL clubs mainly use SM as a one-way communicationtool. In fact, despite recognising the importance of SM as a tool to create an ongoing twoway dialogue with fans, results show that clubs are missing out on this opportunity byexclusively using Facebook as an informational and marketing tool. The clubs, however,seem to be adopting some effective fan engagement tactics, such as the use of vividcontent, maintaining an active page, and the effective timing of posts. This study alsoidentified some of the main challenges faced by the clubs, with lack of human and financialresources being the major challenges. Moreover, maintaining control over what fans poston the clubs SM profiles was also defined as another gruelling and time-consuming task.

When jokes aren’t funny: banter and abuse in the everyday work environments of professional football

ABSTRACT Research question As with most professional institutions, English Premier League football clubs offer insightful, unique opportunities to more fully comprehend the cultural significance of banter and abuse within workplace environments. This article offers a new, critical perspective that provides a better understanding of the distinctive, intricate social discourses surrounding banter in the daily lives of professional footballers by answering the research question: What is the cultural significance of banter within the competitive work environments of English Premier League players? Research method Data were collected from 10 male participants (aged 18–30) by means of qualitative semi-structured vignette interviews. Each participant was interviewed on three separate occasions (30 interviews). Results and findings The data and subsequent analysis illustrate how banter is an accepted and legitimised discourse within professional football, but promotes considerable anxiety, stress and unhappiness in work environments. Implication This study provides an original insight into the attitudes professional football players hold towards banter. Contributing to the existing research that has examined forms of abuse within sport, this article aims to better inform the management and development of athlete well-being and player care.

The Influence of Marketing Communication Strategies on Fandom Development in Tanzania: A Case of Selected Premier League Football Clubs

The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of marketing communication strategies on fandom development in Tanzania: A case of selected premier league football clubs. The study specifically assessed the influence of advertising on club’s fandom development; explored the influence of social media on club’s fandom development; and to assess the influence of corporate social responsibility on club’s fandom development in Tanzania. The targeted population was 910 fans whereby from this population sample size of 185 fans was drawn. The research employed descriptive research design where mixed research approach was applied. Simple random sampling was used to select fans of Simba SC and Mbeya City FC while purposive sampling technique was used to select clubs’ leaders. The findings revealed that advertising strategy, the use of social media and involvement in corporate social responsibility have a great influence in football clubs’ fandom development in Tanzania. The adjusted R2 of the regression output was equals to 0.667 implying that the model explains about 66.7% variations in the clubs’ fandom development. Therefore, advertising strategy, social media and corporate social responsibility were significant predictors of clubs’ fandom development in Tanzania premier league football clubs. Therefore, the study concludes that marketing communication strategy is of vital in influencing fandom development in football clubs. The study recommends that for a club to expand its fandom, its marketing communication strategy should be set in such a way that it can easily be accessed by the majority of the public. Its contents and mode of delivering should be touching the majority of the public. Clubs are required to innovate and intensify the use of effective and efficient marketing communication strategies in promoting clubs’ brand to the public.

Interchangeability of optical tracking technologies: potential overestimation of the sprint running load demands in the English Premier League

ABSTRACT Purpose The purpose of this study was to assess the agreement between match-derived running load outputs; total distance (TD), high-speed running (HSR) and sprint distance (SPR) obtained by two optical tracking systems. Methods Data were collected from 31 elite footballers from the first team and under-21 squads of an English Premier League (EPL) football club across three competitive matches. One EPL game (game 2) and one under-21 Premier League game (game 3) were played at the team’s home stadium and one EPL game (game 1) at an away venue. All matches were tracked concomitantly using eight colour cameras sampling at 10 Hz (PROZONE®) and six high-definition motion cameras sampling at 25 Hz (TRACAB®). Results TD displayed a perfect (r = 0.99) correlation while HSR and SPR displayed very large (r = 0.81 and r = 0.73) correlations between TRACAB® and PROZONE®. Mean biases were 5% for TD, −3% for HSR and 61% for SPR. Between games, mean biases for TD were 6% for game 1, and 5% for game 2 and game 3. For HSR, 9% for game 1, −5% for game 2 and 6% for game 3 and for SPR, 31% for game 1, 71% for game 2 and 84% for game 3. Conclusion TD and HSR can be interchanged between PROZONE® and TRACAB®, to allow accurate interpretation between the two optical systems. PROZONE® overestimated SPR compared to the TRACAB®, with the magnitude of difference considered meaningful, altering interpretation of historical match outputs, sprint volume trends in the EPL and forecasts of the modern game.

It Can Be a "Very Fine Line": Professional Footballers' Perceptions of the Conceptual Divide Between Bullying and Banter.

This study explores professional footballers’ perceptions of where banter crosses the conceptual line into bullying. The study’s focus is of importance, given the impact that abusive behaviors have been found to have on the welfare and safeguarding of English professional footballers. A phenomenological approach was adopted, which focused on the essence of the participants’ perceptions and experiences. Guided by Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), individual semi-structured interviews (MDuration = 44.10 min, SD = 10.81) were conducted with 18 male professional footballers (Mage = 19.83 years, SD = 2.96) from three Premier League and Championship football clubs. The findings from this study revealed several key superordinate themes in relation to the dividing line between bullying and banter. These themes included “perception,” “intentionality,” “detecting the line,” and “having a bit of banter.” The findings demonstrate how perceptions of bullying and banter are nuanced by individual differences among the players and the culture of the professional football context. Specifically, it was found that the professional football context can legitimize forms of humor blurring the lines between bullying and banter, challenging the typically positive view of the concept of banter in this environment. From an applied perspective, these findings highlight the need for coaches, players, and football clubs more broadly to address cultural expectations around banter in their environment, while educating individuals around their own perceptions of bullying and banter.

Injury Patterns among Adult Football Players in Sudan Premier League

1.1. Background: Football is the most famous and most watched sport in the world. Most of the football players are in high risk of getting injured during their professional careers. To play football demands one to be fit. Football players are constantly training to perform at the highest levels and to have enough strength to overcome the demands from the various coaches, staff and fans. During this process, players are exposed to all sorts of trauma and various types of injuries. During the previous few years, the incidence for football related injuries has increased. 1.2. Purpose: Due to lack of previous studies in Sudan, this study is aimed to determine the injury patterns among adult football players in the Premier League in Sudan. 1.3. Objective: To study the injury pattern(s) among adult football players in Khartoum. Injuries resulting from this sport in the Sudan Premier League in Khartoum is the 4th aim of this study. 1.4. Study design: A cross-sectional study design was conducted. 1.5. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study and was conducted in Khartoum State in 2017 involving Premier League football clubs. The target teams included five clubs: Al-Hilal, Meriakh, Al-Ahli, Triat Elbiga and Khartoum Watani. The total number of study participants (i.e. sample size) included 100 adult male football players, with the exception of one team and their players (due to their refusal to participation in this study). The response rate was 80% in the resulting four teams. Data was collected using a questionnaire. 1.6. Results: The prevalence of previous injuries among the players was 23 (23%) and recent injuries rose to 31 players (31%). 1.7. Conclusion: The most common sites for injuries included: the knee, shoulder, hamstring, foot, leg, and back injuries. Among the recent injuries (n=31), the most common type was ruptured muscles reported in 14 (45.5%); ankle injuries 7 (22.6%) and thigh injuries 6 (19.4%) were among the most sites affected. The IV majority of the injuries 23 (74.2%) were on the right side of the body; most of the injuries 23 (82.1%) were caused by trauma and 8 (25.3%) by overuse. Positions played by the injured players includes: midfielder 10 (32.3%); defender 9 (29%); striker 7 (22.6%) and goalkeeper 5 (16.1%). Regarding mechanism of injury: 24 (77.4%) of injuries occurred during matches, 7 (22.6%) during trainings; 17 (54.8%) in pitches with grass; 14 (45.2%) in artificial turf pitches; most of the players 16 (51.6%) changed their footwear every 6 months; 15 (48.4%) of the injuries occurred during sunny weather; 21 (70%) of the injuries happened after player-to-player collisions; collisions while on the pitch accounted for 9 (29%) of injuries. The overall injury prevalence was found to be high, but with lower severities. The most common type of injury found was ruptured muscles.

Predictors of time to return to play and re-injury following hamstring injury with and without intramuscular tendon involvement in adult professional footballers: A retrospective cohort study

ObjectivesIn one English Premier League football club over four seasons, 1) describe the number of hamstring strain injuries (HSI) sustained using the British Athletics Muscle Injury Classification (BAMIC); 2) determine if intramuscular tendon HSI influenced the time to return to play (TTRTP) and reinjury rate; 3) determine the predictors of TTRTP and reinjury. DesignRetrospective cohort design. MethodsAll first team players who sustained a HSI between 2014 and 2018 were included. Players underwent an MRI scan that was graded by a Radiologist using the BAMIC (0a-4) criteria. TTRTP, reinjury rate and information on suspected predictors were recorded. ResultsThirty-five HSI experienced by 24 players (age = 26 ± 4 years) were recorded over the 4 seasons. There was a difference in TTRTP between grades 1a and 2c (P = 0.007), but not between 2b and 2c (P = 0.845). Grade of HSI (P ≤ 0.001) and removal of the player (P < 0.001) were predictors of TTRTP, with each increase in grade resulting in an additional 3 days of TTRTP, and being removed, an additional 11 days. Grade and all other predictors did not influence reinjury rate, albeit higher odds were evident for previous HSI, experiencing the HSI during sprinting, passing a ball or stretching, and reported increase days of pain during walking. ConclusionsHSIs extending into the intramuscular tendon (2b cf. 2c) did not influence TTRTP or re-injury, albeit TTRTP was affected by the BAMIC grade and if the player was removed from activity.

Anticipating Activity in Social Media Spikes

We propose a novel mathematical model for the activity of microbloggers during an external, event-driven spike. The model leads to a testable prediction of who would become most active if a spike were to take place. This type of insight into human behaviour has many applications, as it identifies key players who can be targeted with information in real time when the network is most receptive. The model takes account of the fact that dynamic interactions evolve over an underlying, static network that records "who listens to whom". Our fundamental assumption is that, in the case where the entire community has become aware of an external news event, a key driver of activity is the motivation to participate by responding to incoming messages. We validate the resulting algorithm on a large scale Twitter conversation concerning the appointment of a UK Premier League football club manager. We also find that the half-life of a spike in activity can be quantified in terms of the network size and the typical response rate.

Building A Kinetic Expectation Scale For Goalkeepers During A Penalty Shootout Of The Premier League Football Clubs For The 2018-2019 Sports Season In The Republic Of Iraq

Building A Kinetic Expectation Scale For Goalkeepers During A Penalty Shootout Of The Premier League Football Clubs For The 2018-2019 Sports Season In The Republic Of Iraq

Roman Abramovich and his principles of management

Almost one in three of the 92 Premier and Football League clubs are now substantially owned and incorporated internationally, including in offshore tax havens. Such ownership structure leads to the English football leagues being accused of allowing ownership structures of clubs that could be used for tax avoidance. What is ignored is the analysis of owners’ management strategies and tactics. This articles uses the example of Roman Abromovish and his Chelsea F.C. for analysis of application of the classic and neoclassic principles of management. It identifies the relative consistency and relevancy of traditional managerial principles in increasingly cross-sectoral and transnational enterprises such as Premier League Football Clubs.

Building a Kinetic Expectation Scale for Goalkeepers during a Penalty Shootout of The Premier League Football Clubs for the 2018-2019 Sports Season in The Republic of Iraq

Building a Kinetic Expectation Scale for Goalkeepers during a Penalty Shootout of The Premier League Football Clubs for the 2018-2019 Sports Season in The Republic of Iraq

A Genome-Wide Association Study of Sprint Performance in Elite Youth Football Players

Pickering, C, Suraci, B, Semenova, EA, Boulygina, EA, Kostryukova, ES, Kulemin, NA, Borisov, OV, Khabibova, SA, Larin, AK, Pavlenko, AV, Lyubaeva, EV, Popov, DV, Lysenko, EA, Vepkhvadze, TF, Lednev, EM, Leońska-Duniec, A, Pająk, B, Chycki, J, Moska, W, Lulińska-Kuklik, E, Dornowski, M, Maszczyk, A, Bradley, B, Kana-ah, A, Cięszczyk, P, Generozov, EV, and Ahmetov, II. A genome-wide association study of sprint performance in elite youth football players. J Strength Cond Res 33(9): 2344-2351, 2019-Sprint speed is an important component of football performance, with teams often placing a high value on sprint and acceleration ability. The aim of this study was to undertake the first genome-wide association study to identify genetic variants associated with sprint test performance in elite youth football players and to further validate the obtained results in additional studies. Using micro-array data (600 K-1.14 M single nucleotide polymorphisms [SNPs]) of 1,206 subjects, we identified 12 SNPs with suggestive significance after passing replication criteria. The polymorphism rs55743914 located in the PTPRK gene was found as the most significant for 5-m sprint test (p = 7.7 × 10). Seven of the discovered SNPs were also associated with sprint test performance in a cohort of 126 Polish women, and 4 were associated with power athlete status in a cohort of 399 elite Russian athletes. Six SNPs were associated with muscle fiber type in a cohort of 96 Russian subjects. We also examined genotype distributions and possible associations for 16 SNPs previously linked with sprint performance. Four SNPs (AGT rs699, HSD17B14 rs7247312, IGF2 rs680, and IL6 rs1800795) were associated with sprint test performance in this cohort. In addition, the G alleles of 2 SNPs in ADRB2 (rs1042713 & rs1042714) were significantly over-represented in these players compared with British and European controls. These results suggest that there is a genetic influence on sprint test performance in footballers, and identifies some of the genetic variants that help explain this influence.

Managing organizational reputation in response to a public shaming campaign

Sport has embraced social media, intensifying the (online) coverage of sport organizations and athletes. Until now, the role that social media has played in the renaissance of public shaming in sport has received little attention. To address this gap, the authors present a novel case study of a public, online shaming campaign against an English Premier League football club by one of their own supporters. Data were collected from multiple sources, including online sources and organizational documents that informed both the creation of semi-structured interviews and the development of a process model of public, online shaming. Findings reveal how a supporter query was mishandled by the club. In response, the supporter turned-activist launched a low-scale online shaming campaign about disability discrimination. The campaign escalated in profile to gain national media attention. Within the framework of Online Reputation Management, the authors present the organizational response that sought to bolster the club’s reputation by deploying a series of internal and external responses. The authors conclude that to minimize the potentially negative effects of public shaming in sport, sports organizations should implement specific reputation management practices but ones that monitor online sources for potential issues and crises.